Gov. Jared Polis asked lawmakers for another $200 million toward property tax relief — in addition to $700 million passed last year — in his updated budget proposal Tuesday.
Polis, a Democrat who sailed to re-election in November, updated his budget proposal to reflect the most recent December economic forecast. His updated proposal trimmed the overall budget request from $42.7 billion to $42.6 billion, while leaving the general fund relatively untouched at about $16.7 billion, according to the governor’s letter to lawmakers.
But he did update some of his requests. In addition to the property tax relief, Polis also wanted to direct more money to job training, earmark some to leverage federal dollars and push the state toward his goal of 100% renewable energy by 2040 through clean energy tax credits and expanded rebates for electric vehicles, e-bikes and electric mowers and leaf blowers.
The legislature will ultimately draft and pass a budget to send to Polis this spring. There will still be another economic forecast that will underpin the final budget proposal in March, meaning this is a “starting point” for budget writing, Polis said. But, there’s also “a lot of alignment” on how he ran for re-election and Democrats who expanded their majorities in both legislative chambers.
“(The budget is) an opportunity to really highlight our values, the mandate that I have on behalf of the people of Colorado, and our plans for the second term,” Polis said.
